[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 109 (Tuesday, August 9, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 9, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
    CLINTON'S HEALTH CARE PLAN: AMERICANS ARE SKEPTICAL, NOT CYNICAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
February 11, 1994, and June 10, 1994, the gentleman from New Jersey 
[Mr. Saxton] is recognized during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, not long ago the President became frustrated 
at the lack of public support for his health care reform approach and 
he said these words:

       I just got back from Normandy, celebrating the 50th 
     anniversary of D-day, and when I stood on Normandy beaches 
     and when I saw all those rows of crosses there, it occurred 
     to me that those people did not die so the American people 
     could indulge themselves in the luxury of cynicism and, 
     frankly, that is just what it is.

  That was a reference to the American people's reaction to his health 
care approach.
  Mr. Speaker, when it comes to the process of health care reform, the 
American people are not cynical, they are skeptical, and they have good 
reason to be.
  Let us take a case in point. At the center of the debate is the so-
called employer mandate. The employer mandate is an additional payroll 
tax on employers and employees that would pay for what President 
Clinton has suggested and leader Gephardt has taken up in the way of 
health care reform.
  The problem with the employer mandate is that it is an additional tax 
on jobs, and we all know here when we tax something, we get less of it.
  In this case, raising taxes on businesses, especially small 
businesses, to pay for health care will result in less jobs. Many think 
over a million fewer jobs.
  Who will lose their jobs if Congress passes this payroll tax? 
Numerous economic studies agree that part-time workers, employees of 
small businesses along with people who work in retail will be the 
hardest hit.
  Staff economists at our Joint Economic Committee recently reviewed 41 
different studies of the job impact of President Clinton's proposed 
employer mandate. The studies conclude that the employer mandate will 
destroy more than a million jobs and will significantly reduce wages, 
that is right, destroy jobs and reduce wages, and all 41 studies 
agreed.
  Guess who will take the biggest hit? If you said the middle class, 
you are right.
  More specifically, in my home State, New Jersey, according to one 
study in 1988, in 1 year alone New Jersey would lose over 32,000 jobs 
and $3.6 billion in wages and benefits.
  To bring these numbers closer to home, the employer mandate would 
mean a loss of more than $2,000 per family in income for the average 
New Jersey family of four.
  In fact, some call this new tax a wage-batterer and a job-killer. Yet 
something must be done to make health care affordable and accessible. 
If Congress is serious about passing health care reform this year, I 
believe we could pass a bill that would allow us to change jobs without 
the fear of losing insurance due to some preexisting condition. I think 
we can all agree on that.
  A plan that would reform medical malpractice laws, which cost 
millions of dollars because doctors must practice defensive medicine, a 
plan that would permit all businesses, particularly small ones, to form 
risk pools to bring down insurance costs; and, finally, a plan that 
would make other commonsense reforms that would help millions of 
Americans be able to afford health care insurance.
  Proposals like these enjoy broad bipartisan support and would address 
97 percent or better of the health care costs. Such commonsense reforms 
are not halfhearted, as the President has suggested, nor are they 
hardheaded. Unfortunately, Congress cannot pass a meaningful health 
care reform bill until a position on a Government-run bill which would 
raise taxes, limit our choices, and kill our jobs, is put aside.

                              {time}  1050

  Some time ago President Clinton said that the American people were 
unwilling to listen to the complex debate and make the difficult 
decisions. Mr. Speaker, it is not that the American people are 
unwilling or unable to understand the health care plan. It is that the 
American people have rejected the big-government, high-tax approach.
  There is a tremendous bipartisan desire by Republicans and Democrats 
alike in this House to pass a bill to get this problem behind us. We 
should take the approach that we can all agree on rather than that 
suggested by the chief supporter of the President's plan in Congress. 
That is the gentlemen from the other House who said recently Congress 
should push through their bill, meaning the President's bill, 
regardless of the views of the American people.
  Mr. Speaker, we should listen to the American people and pass a good 
bipartisan health care plan without mandates, and we should do it 
before we leave here this August.

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